Category: Weight Watchers

Weight Watcher Easy Breakfast Ideas

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

weight watchers breakfast ideas, weight watchers breakfast recipes

As I keep going along my Weight Watchers journey, I’ve discovered something about me. I eat better and stay on track easier when I have a decent breakfast each morning. However, along that discovery I’ve also realized that I hate waking up early to cook.

A few weeks back I shared what I typically eat in a day. Now that holds true, but I found myself starting to slip when it comes to lunch. As I mentioned in that post, lunch is my hardest meal of the day. I work in an office with my Dad so a lot of times I’ll grab something to eat with him or meet a friend for lunch. And in our small town there aren’t a lot of healthy options, and you can only have a fast food salad so many times before they start tasting gross.

So I’ve been working really hard, but found myself so hungry my lunchtime that all my logic and preplanning would go right out the window. I had to figure something out…

That’s when one morning after waking up too early, I spent a few minutes cooking scrambled eggs. Now I’m not usually a big egg fan, but this morning they tasted alright and by lunch time I found myself sticking to my plan.

So I did it again. And again I found myself hungry, but not irrationally starving by lunchtime.

Here I am a week into my new found breakfast plan and decided it was time to find some yummy breakfast ideas that don’t take forever to make and don’t always involve an egg.

Here’s my go-to this week:
1 scrambled egg
1/2 ounce fiesta shredded cheese
1/2 teaspoon butter

This is only 1 SmartPoint and really does help keep me satisfied until close to lunch. It’s not a lot of food, but for someone who didn’t eat breakfast a week ago… it’s enough.

Here are some great Weight Watchers breakfast recipes I found on Pinterest or ones I’ve made before that I’m going to try over the next few days:

One SmartPoint Pancakes from No.2 Pencil

Two SmartPoints Egg in A Basket

3 SmartPoints Egg Sandwich (1 bagel thin, 1/2 teaspoon butter, 1 fried egg)

Make-Ahead Individual Ham, Cheese & Veggie Frittatas by The Taste Place

5 SmartPoints Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal Muffins by Crazy For Crust

What are some of your favorite Weight Watchers breakfast ideas that are easy (or make ahead)?  Let me know!

Low Calorie Snack Ideas For Weight Watchers

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

low calorie snacks on weight watchers

What are your favorite low calorie snacks for on the go? For me, as I go through Weight Watchers and my weight loss journey I’ve realized a few things.

ONE: I am not someone who can go without.  I can limit how often I want to eat a specific food and even control my portions, but it’s hard for me to tell myself “never again!”

TWO: I am a snacker.

I think that’s why I love the Weight Watchers Freestyle Program so much. It gives me the flexibility to eat what I want, when I want.  All I have to do is track it and make sure to stay within my daily points.  On Monday I shared what I eat in a day to help me lose weight following Weight Watchers.  I had a few questions about my snacks and if I ever mix it up.

Of course I mix things up.  It’s hard to eat the same thing every single day.  I would even go so far to say impossible for me.  So I have to have variety in what I eat.  We tend to meal plan and grocery shop every two weeks.  So I typically grab quite a few snacks at the grocery that will last for two weeks.

Snacks are probably the easiest way to mix up your daily routine. But here’s what you need to remember when it comes to snacking…

  1. Don’t snack if you’re not hungry
  2. Try to include protein with your snacks
  3. Remember to track (if following Weight Watchers)

Here are some of my favorite low calorie snacks while following Weight Watchers.

Zero SmartPoints Foods:

Fruit and Vegetables – When Weight Watchers revamped their program they made most fruits and vegetables zero SmartPoints, which is amazing!  So you can easily grab on the go and not have to worry about messing up your day.  My favorites are bananas, apples, grapes, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, mini bell peppers and tomatoes.

Hard-boiled Eggs

Scrambled eggs with veggies

Nonfat Greek yogurt with strawberries and blueberries

Tyson Grilled and Ready cooked chicken breasts in lettuce wraps or by themselves

1/2 cup Nonfat Greek yogurt mixed with 1 Tablespoon dry ranch dressing mix then served with carrots and cauliflower

One SmartPoint Snack Ideas:

Cinnamon Sugar Pancake Bites

Reduced Fat Laughing Cow Cheese wedge with 2 mini bell peppers

1 Tablespoon reduced fat cream cheese spread over 3 slices of low sodium turkey deli meat with 1/2 piece of crumbled turkey bacon

1 lightly salted rice cake with an apple

Two SmartPoint Snack Ideas:

Reduced fat string cheese with an apple

1 chocolate rice cake with a banana

1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt served with an apple and a drizzle of light maple syrup

Slow cooker pizza used as a dip for bell peppers

Other Low Calorie Snacks

Triscuits (I really love the gouda flavor)

Pop Chips

Skinny Pop

Apple with 1 Tablespoon organic peanut butter drizzled on top

2 slices of whole what bread, toasted and served with 1/4 avocado spread on top

Tortilla chips with reduced sodium salsa

These are just a few of the snacks that I rotate through.  What are some of your favorites? Leave your comment letting me know!

What I Eat In A Day (Losing Weight With Weight Watchers)

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

what i eat in a day to lose weight, following weight watchers

What should you eat in a day if you’re wanting to lose weight?

Losing weight is hard.  Really hard.  Especially when you have a family, a career and a business to run.  So finding foods that you enjoy is critical when it comes to staying motivated to lose weight.  You might enjoy eating out from time-to-time and if you tell yourself that you can no longer eat out then you might be sabotaging yourself.  So make sure you find a happy medium in eating healthy, enjoying your food and splurging some.

For me, I enjoy eating out at lunch.  I work with my dad so a lot of days him and I go get food together.  Other days I either run home (which is always the best when it comes to Weight Watchers for me!) or I grab lunch with a friend.  I have to watch my choices when I eat out and keep my portion sizes under control.

I’m sharing what I eat in a typical day to help me lose weight following the Weight Watchers program.  My goal is to make my days easy.  I like to plan ahead of time, but that doesn’t mean I’m always perfect when it comes to sticking to my plan.

Watch today’s video of what I eat in day to lose weight either online or down below:

As you can see in the video I try hard to never let myself not be prepared.  I bring water with me everywhere, take snacks with me to work, and try to be mindful of what I’m eating.

If you’re curious about why I re-joined Weight Watchers checkout this post.

What are some of your favorite snacks when trying to lose weight? Leave a comment letting me know!

Weight Watchers Freestyle Weekly Update

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Weight Watchers Freestyle, weekly weigh-ins and meal ideas

Well I am ashamed to admit I have missed the last two Weight Watchers meetings.  I know, I know.  Shame on me!

I would like to say I have a good reason, but you can be the judge.  The first week I missed I woke up not feeling all the great.  I ended up taking it easy all day just to wake up on Sunday feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  All I did Sunday was take medicine and sleep – I would nap for 4 hours, wake up to take a dose of medicine, fall back asleep for another 4 hours and repeat.  All I had to eat was half of a chicken tender – like two bites!

On Monday I crawled my way to the doctor to find out I had Strep.  I was then quarantined for three days and couldn’t return to work until Thursday (doctor’s orders). I was also given some nice antibiotics to help.  My parents ended up keeping our son for a few days just so I wouldn’t be around him (which worked great because he did not get Strep).

I started feeling like myself again on Wednesday and finally went back to work on Thursday.

My last meeting (a week after getting sick) was a weekend we had plan to go camping for months – we were going with friends and my in-laws, so we didn’t want to miss.  We ended up getting everything together last minute and headed out for a fun weekend.  We camped, we grilled good food, we laughed and we did an all day float (our son’s first time).  After we got back from floating our son’s allergies were going crazy and of course, I forgot his allergy medicines at home since we packed in a hurry (#momoftheyear).  I did run to the store to grab more medicine, but the damage was already done and by Monday of this past week he had a fever and runny nose.

Luckily it was just a cold and was fine within a few days.

You’re probably thinking, “Meredith I’m glad you’re better and had fun camping, but what does this have to do with Weight Watchers?”

Nothing.  It’s just my way of explaining and justifying (mainly to myself) why I missed the last two meetings.  However, I do plan on making it to this week’s meeting (tomorrow) so that I can see how I’ve done.  I’ve been weighing myself at home and I’ve been doing pretty good with what I’m eating.  Being sick really ruined my appetite and kind of supercharged me into not eating crap while I was sick.

This past week I’ve been sticking with my water goal of drinking more (lots more).  I’ve been tracking what I eat and being mindful of whether or not I’m really hungry.  I’ve also splurged a little – Monday when I went to the doctor was my birthday.  The office threw me a luncheon when I returned on Thursday with my favorite cookies, which are impossible for me to turn down.

This next week my goals are simple:

  1. Go to my Weight Watchers meeting
  2. Track what I eat
  3. Cook at home
  4. Continue to drink more water
  5. Work the Blue Dot Challenge in the Weight Watchers Freestyle Program

What are your goals for the upcoming week? Leave a comment letting me know!

Weight Watchers Iced Coffee [Only 1 SmartPoint]

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

weight watchers iced coffee

Well this week’s Weight Watchers check in is going to look a little different.  You see, Strep throat hit me hard last weekend – like really hard.  Like, force me to sleep for almost two days straight and crawl my way into the doctor’s office on Monday.

I didn’t make it to my meeting, but instead of getting upset about missing my first meeting – I’m just grateful to finally be on the mend.  I usually get at least one case of Strep throat every other year, and of course, it’s always during the middle of summer.  Ugh!

To keep my momentum with my Weight Watchers posts, I thought I would share a go-to morning recipe with you.  If you know me, then you know my love and slight addiction to diet mountain dew.  It’s my coffee, it’s my lunch drink and it’s my all day sipper.  So bad for me, I know!

I’ve been working hard at replacing it with water.  In last week’s check in I shared how one of my goals was to drink two large insulated bottles of water a day.  Luckily, I’ve been doing really good with that.  But I’m still struggling with my mornings.

Since I’m not the biggest coffee drinker, I had to come up with something.  I had made coffee one morning and totally forgot about it until it was no longer warm.  I didn’t want to waste the coffee, so I just dumped it into a cup with ice.  Took a sip, took another sip and decided it was really good.

Enter in this simple Weight Watchers iced coffee recipe.

Weight Watchers Iced Coffee

Here’s what you need for your Weight Watchers iced coffee:

4 oz. of your favorite coffee (I used Toasted Coconut from Walmart)
4 oz. unsweetened original almond milk
1 teaspoon sugar free French vanilla creamer
1/2 – 1 teaspoon Stevia
Glass of ice

Mix it all together in your glass and serve!

See I told you it was simple.

The best part? This whole drink is only 1 SmartPoint!  1 point!  Now if you’ve been doing Weight Watchers for any amount of time, you might be thinking that all these ingredients on their own are 0 points.  However, when combined and entered into the recipe maker it comes out to be 1 point.  I’ll take it!

Weight Watchers Egg in a Toast Cup – 2 PointsPlus Breakfast

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

weight watchers breakfast recipe (1)

Tired of the same boring breakfast over and over again? As someone who barely tolerates eggs (as in the only way I eat them are either baked all the way in the oven in a dish or scramble them with cheese).  I cannot stand eating basic scrambled eggs every morning.  I just won’t do it.  Actually I can’t do it.

I’m ashamed to admit how many eggs I’ve wasted by making a bowl of scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese just to toss them away, completely untouched.  I wake up hungry, grab some water and get ready for the day.  I always save time to make breakfast for myself and our son.  I cook eggs a lot of mornings.  While our son eats, I just stare at my plate.  Then it’s time to go and I haven’t even taken one bite.

It’s sad.

So now that I’m doing Weight Watchers again, I decided it was time to get a better handle on my breakfast.  Eggs are zero points, so I need to be eating them.  Plus the are filled with some crazy goodness!  I just needed to find a new way to prepare them – something different.

I remember years ago when I did Weight Watchers, I stumbled upon a recipe that was super simple and super easy.  I just needed to remember it or find it.  So I googled what I knew about it…

flatten bread and eggs for breakfast

That’s it.

Do you know what? The recipe pulled up! You got to love technology!

It was a Martha Stewart recipe from 2010 y’all and it was amazing back then, so I was willing to give it a shot.  Of course I had to do some tweaks to make it a little more Weight Watcher friendly.  But it took less than 7 minutes to prepare and about 10 minutes to bake.  Here’s what I did to make my version of the Weight Watchers Egg in a Toast Cup:

I grabbed two slices of bread and flatten them with a rolling pin.

Once flattened, I cut each slice into four equal pieces.  I sprayed my mini muffin tin with cooking spray and placed each piece of bread into it.

I baked at 375 for 5 minutes.  While the bread is baking, I moved on to the egg mixture.

I cracked open two eggs into a measuring cup.  I whisked with a fork and added 1 teaspoon of bacon bits.  You can also add in any veggies you want, but keep in mine they need to be diced pretty finely since using the mini muffin tin.

Pour the bread out of the oven and pour the egg mixture on top. Divide 1 Tablespoon of shredded cheese between the 8 muffin cups.  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until eggs are done.

That’s it!

Super simple.  Now of course you can use a larger muffin tin and that would be about 1 egg per muffin.  This way you get four mini muffins for the same value – it appears to be more food, making me more satisfied.

The SmartPoints value is 2 for one serving.  The entire recipe makes two servings.

If you want to see more about this recipe and some other favorites, check out my Instagram page.  I have a stories highlight called WW.

weight watchers, weight watchers recipe

Ingredients Needed:

2 slices of whole wheat bread
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon bacon bits (or cooked turkey bacon diced finely)
1 Tablespoon shredded cheese
any other veggies you want, diced finely

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Flatten slices of bread using rolling pin. Once flat, cut each slice into four equal pieces.

Spray mini muffin tin with cooking spray.  Place one small piece of bread into each muffin tin, being sure to cover the bottom.

Bake the bread for 5 minutes.

While bread is baking, mix eggs, bacon bits and any veggies together in a measuring cup or small bow.

Pour bread once it’s done.  Pour egg mixture into the formed bread bowls.  Evenly divide the shredded cheese between the muffin tins.

Bake for 10 minutes or until eggs are done.

This Week’s Weight Watchers Weigh In

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Weight Watchers Freestyle, weekly weigh-ins and meal ideas

I have a love-hate relationship with Weight Watchers, which I imagine most of us do.  You love losing weight and being in control, but when one little thing throws you off – you hate it.  You see, during the summer I travel a lot for work. I’ve had back-to-back conferences the past two weeks, which makes it extra hard to have control over my eating.  But that’s life.  I don’t live in a bubble, but when you feel the pain from tracking the pizza that was offered at lunch and know your dinner is going to be just as bad, it can be tiring.

But I’m home!  And that means getting back to a good, simple routine.  I can start preparing all of my foods, tracking every bite because I know how it’s made and what ingredients were used.   Traveling is never easy.  Last week during my post, I was feeling very defeated.  I felt like I had been flip-flopping the same few pounds for weeks now (and I’ve just re-joined 2 months ago!).  I had some amazing people leave me comments on last week’s video, send me DMs and leave comments over on Instagram – THANK YOU! – It was what I needed.  When so many women tell you to trust the process and stick with it then you know it’s coming from experience.  So here I am, back at it.

It’s week 9 and my weigh in went as expected.  I was up a bit (not even a pound!), but I knew after traveling to New Orleans and sitting in conference all week that was going to happen. I was actually happy that my gain was so minimal!  I walked out of my weekly meeting feeling renewed and motivated.

I have a plan for this next week and it’s going to work!

You can watch last week’s weigh in online or down below:

This post might be a bit weird in tense – you see, I weigh in on Saturday’s, but my post and video usually doesn’t go live until the next Friday (#momlife).  So I usually write the first part of my blog post right after I weigh in and then as I start talking about my goals it feels weird talking about the future when I know this isn’t going to go live until after the week…. so I apologize if my present tense, past tense and all that good stuff seems a bit off.  Just roll with it!

What I’m most excited is this week is a holiday week – I’m writing this before the 4th of July.  I am off work starting on Wednesday, so we’ll spend time playing inside since it’s so hot, but we’ll also head to my parents’ pool to get in some more exercise.  Want to know my biggest secret to my activity this week?

Well if you’ve been watching my Instagram Stories then you know we’ve been potty training our little guy.  So there has been no sitting, no resting and no lounging around.  We’ve been up, working to make it to the potty on time, getting up at night, cleaning messes and chasing a toddler around who’s trying to give his reward to the dogs.  It’s been a busy past few days at our house, but he’s getting the hang of it and mom’s building her leg muscles from getting up and down off the floor all week!

Weight Watchers Weekly Check In [Week 8]

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Weight Watchers Freestyle, weekly weigh-ins and meal ideas

Ever feel as if you’re continuously running in one of those hamster wheels while someone stares at you?

Well that’s how I’m starting to feel about Weight Watchers.  I’m two months in and my progress is slow, real slow.  I feel as if I’m running in place not really making any actual progress or losing any real weight.  Here I am 8 weeks in down right at 5 pounds and I keep flip flopping back and forth on a pound…

I lose it.  I gain it.  I increase my activity, watch everything I put into my mouth, track like a mad woman and I lose the pound.  Then I travel for work, lose control over most of my food options, and I gain it right back.

Which some would say after traveling as much as I have that only gaining a pound would be amazing, but it’s still gaining.  The point of Weight Watchers is to lose weight.  I’m paying to lose weight.  I wake up early on Saturday mornings to weigh in to lose weight.  I track every bite to lose weight.

So it’s hard to get off track for a week (or two in my case) and to see a gain on the scale.  It’s frustrating, but in reality I’m frustrated with myself.

I’m the one who has control over my progress, my food choices and so on… So, I’m the one that is sabotaging myself.  I know it.  But it’s still frustrating.

Watch this week’s video online or below:

This week after being gone for an entire week at a conference in a hotel I gain 1.4 pounds.

My goals for next week?   Do better.

Simple as that.  I’ll be traveling again, this time to New Orleans for a conference and my whole family will be coming.  It’s going to be harder and yet, I want to see a loss when I step on the scale on Saturday.

I can do it.  You can do it.  We can do it.

Weight Watchers Weekly Weigh In

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Weight Watchers Freestyle, weekly weigh-ins and meal ideas

This week’s Weight Watchers weigh in was something I wasn’t prepared for.. at least not this early on in my weight loss journey. 

You see, my weight stayed the same….

In my mind this isn’t a win, but more of a fail.  Now I know I shouldn’t see it as a fail, but it’s hard not to. I’m still pretty early on – 7 weeks after joining Weight Watchers and I wasn’t expecting to stay the same between weigh ins.  I worked hard on tracking my food, keeping focused on my portion sizes, and making sure to eat lots of zero point foods.

I know my eating and portions are doing a lot better, but my activity really is the problem.  It’s just so hot here in Southeast Missouri that it’s miserable to go outside even after work. I need ideas on fun activities that we can do as a family that will help me break a sweat, but also keep our two year old safe out of the heat.

Watch this week’s Weight Watchers weigh in online or down below:

Leave a comment letting me know some fun activity that I can add in during these hot summer months!

Weight Watchers Weekly Weigh In [Week 6]

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Weight Watchers Freestyle, weekly weigh-ins and meal ideas

Well I did it!  I received my first 5 pound award from Weight Watchers.  I’m not going to lie – it felt amazing!  I know the first five took a pretty long time – 6 weeks – thanks to needing to learn how to control my portions and to make sure I track everything I eat.

It’s funny how we tend to forget those few bites here and those couple of bites there.

I’ve been pretty focused on tracking every single bite (even the small half cookies my toddler likes to force feed me, “momma bite.” then he shoves it in) and making sure I include all the ingredients to the meals we’re cooking.  I’ve even spoken up a the restaurant to make sure my veggies weren’t cooked in butter, which means less points!

This past week was great for me and I’m motivated to keep the ball rolling.  I know it will be hard the last two weeks of June since I’ll be traveling to back-to-back conferences.  But luckily we’ll be driving to both of them so I can bring my own snacks and drinks with me to help keep me on track.

Watch this past week’s Weight Watchers weekly weigh in online or down below:

This week’s goals are all about consistency – being more consistent with my activity level.  It’s been so dang hot in Southeast Missouri that even in the evening times it’s still well past 90 outside, which makes it really hard to want to get up and go for a walk.  Luckily this coming week is going to be a lot different.  My husband signed up for a Tough Mudder (look them up, if you haven’t heard of them) and he’s starting his training.  …and I told him I would do it with him… GULP!

If you don’t hear from in a few days then please send help – I might need someone to help lift me up off the floor! I haven’t done much exercising in months and I know the first few training sessions are going to hurt.  I peeked at the schedule and it included a lot of squats, lunches and burpees. Ugh!

So we’ll see how this goes, but I know it’ll be for the best!  I’ll keep you updated about my training in my next Weight Watchers weekly weigh in!

Check out my previous weekly weigh ins!